Ketchup Cult
Performance + Installation / Mixed media

Ketchup Cult is a satirical ritual-performance born from personal history, cultural critique, and an obsessive love for ketchup. Inspired by the artist’s upbringing in a deeply religious family—his grandfather was a pastor of a major church in Chile—this piece reimagines devotion through the absurd lens of condiment worship.

During the performance, the artist dons ceremonial robes emblazoned with “Ketchup Church” and conducts a mock service inside a minimal white chapel. At the center is a giant bottle of Heinz ketchup—complete with a “SUBMIT” label—serving as a literal and symbolic deity. Surrounding this altar are anthropomorphic ketchup bottles posed in worship, their twisted limbs and holy stances reminiscent of classical statuary.

A sacred book titled Ketchup Church records the names of new “believers,” and sculptural rituals unfold in real time. In one act, the artist bathes the bottle-statues in real ketchup—an act of messy anointment, blurring reverence with ridicule.

Ketchup Cult critiques organized religion, but also highlights the human need for ritual, structure, and belief—even if those beliefs are ultimately absurd. The piece draws humor from childhood memories, like carrying a personal ketchup bottle to school, but also taps into the darker absurdities of blind devotion and sacred consumption.

This is worship as parody. Idolatry by way of pop culture. A celebration and mockery of belief systems, taste, and the objects we elevate—literally and metaphorically—to divine status.